Monday, 5 October 2015

TweetThe Secretary
of State set
out in some detail last week his reasons for pessimism about achieving
agreement on the proposed Wales Bill.No
surprise at all that the fault for this is being placed squarely on the Labour
Party’s reluctance to submissively sign up to exactly what the Tories offer
rather than on any reluctance by his own government to negotiate seriously, or
even honour the promises that they’ve made before.

His real
objection to establishing a legal jurisdiction for Wales is probably based on
his previous statements that he will do nothing which might conceivable make it
easier for Wales to become independent, at some distant future point, if Wales
ever had a political party arguing for such a step to be taken.

But one of the
reasons he gives is even sillier – it seems to boil down to a few lawyers from
Wales who’ve had a successful career in London feeling that lawyers might not
do so well for themselves working solely in Wales.I suspect that it is probably true – but I
also suspect that the career prospects for lawyers are not the top reason which
many people would put forward as a basis for deciding how Wales should be run.

A manufactured row about a separate welsh legal jurisdiction is exactly what the Tories and Labour want ahead of the Assembly elections, it provides an artificial point of difference between the parties they can spin to their supporters and wider electorate.

And if Stephen Crabb genuinely was concerned about legal careers for welsh graduates then a separate welsh legal would provide jobs and careers aplenty, but his remarks were never about jobs just grubby politics that Carwyn Jones is returning in kind.